Sainz's spontaneous Langkawi 'boys' trip' ends in karting carnage as seven F1 drivers let loose

From Baku to a 'random' island flight: how the trip happened

Ahead of this weekend's 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, several members of the Formula 1 grid headed on a 'boys' holiday training camp' to Langkawi, spending their time playing chess, karting, training and heading out on boats. The plan came together almost by accident, as Carlos Sainz explained in Thursday's print media session in Sepang.

"It was a combination," Sainz said. "I think I saw that there were drivers trying to get on a flight to Malaysia from Baku on Saturday night, and rather than flying straight to Kuala Lumpur, I offered, 'Why don't we go somewhere else?'"

The Williams driver found a hotel on an island with good cycling and a good gym and pitched it to his rivals. "We all jumped on that plane on Saturday night and flew straight from Baku to Langkawi. No one has probably ever flown from Baku to Langkawi. It's the most random flight ever."

'A bit of a social experiment'

Joining Sainz and Williams team mate Alex Albon were George Russell, Ollie Bearman, Oscar Piastri, Gabriel Bortoleto and former F1 driver Roberto Merhi. For Sainz, the trip offered something rarely found during a season — genuine time with the people he races against every weekend.

"Normally on race weekends, we never see each other," he explained. "I never see all the guys that I got to spend time with because we all have our own commitments, so very rarely do you actually get to spend some proper time with them. The island we went to was quite fun because it was a small island and you put seven drivers on an island and see what they end up doing. It was a bit of a social experiment, for sure."

"I personally got to meet a lot more characters and some drivers that I didn't know. I got to see their story, where they came from, how they ended up being the way they are, and why, and got to bond with them and understand them a bit better. For me, it was a very cool experience. I think we all left there quite happy with how it went."

Karting carnage: 'it was wild'

The drivers took over a nearby karting track, picking their own names and taking photos for their profiles — Russell raced as 'G Dawg', Albon as 'Albino', Sainz as his F1 number '55' and Piastri simply as 'OP'. What followed was, by Russell's account, barely controlled chaos.

"It was wild," the most recent F1 race winner stated. "Firstly I got helped out by the Malaysians... I went over to one of the guys like, 'What is the best kart?' and he put new tyres on, so I had this kart that was like 1.5 seconds quicker than everyone else and they were kicking off!"

"It was carnage, but I thought it would be. Bortoleto ended up with bruises on his back, Piastri almost broke a rib, it was like a banger race! I actually pitted before the end because I was like, 'I am going to break something here', so I actually don't know who won. Bearman put Merhi through a wall on the first lap of the race and then it was like, 'Who else could hit someone else off the hardest?'"

Norris opts for chess over carnage

Reigning World Champion Lando Norris skipped the karting but was spotted unwinding with a game of chess on the beachfront. "Everyone else went karting, but I did a bit of training and stayed in," he said in Thursday's print media session. "From what I heard, I certainly don't think it made anyone treat each other any nicer. I think it made it even worse. From what I heard, everyone put each other in a wall at some point."

Norris does not believe the bonding makes for friendlier racing once helmets are on. "I think people are able to separate personal life and personal time from when you're putting a helmet on. I think you become two different people. You are two different versions of yourself," he said. "I don't agree with that kind of statement that racing is more friendly. I think at times it's the opposite of that. But it's nice that we get to just be normal people away from the track."

Training for Sepang and Singapore

Beyond the downtime, there was serious preparation for two physically demanding races in Malaysia and Singapore. "It was a good training camp, to be honest, and I'm working hard to prepare for this race," Bearman said in the pre-race press conference. "You know, it's a very unique climate that we have here and of course next week in Singapore as well. It was very fun to spend a bit of time with some of the guys outside of the circuit, and that's also quite rare to be able to do that."

Piastri echoed that sentiment, describing the trip as a rare chance to switch off together. "It was pretty last minute, but it was good fun being able to switch off from racing a bit," he said. "It's very rare that you get so many drivers actually spending time together away from a racetrack. At the end of the day, we're 22 guys that love racing."